Thread by @Mssarahmssarah

Before I start a very much needed spring break, two things I've been thinking about a lot this week:

1. One of my own kids testing positive for covid

2. Opening NYC schools more

A long🧵

We joined the many NYC families this year who have gotten a + test for a child. It was frightening. The fear that a child will get/stay really sick. The fear that they've spread it to the rest of the family. The difficulty of quarantining four young kids from each other.

Then there was the contact tracing. NYC school staff have observed how understaffed, overworked and slow the Situation Room often is this year. Issues like the one below are constant. I got the chance to see that for myself again.

https://twitter.com/kelwalk12/status/1374801433401430022?s=20

In our case, the situation room misclassified our kid as a connected covid case, meaning they thought she had gotten it from family or some other known source. She hadn't. Before they realized their mistake, days had gone by.

It reminded me of what a house of cards the whole school situation can be. I was also anxious about my other kids' classes. While we waited for *their* results to come back, days later, their classrooms were still open. Luckily they were both negative. What if they hadn't been?

Those two classes would have been exposed, and would still be sharing maskless meals together. There are many families with siblings in schools, like us, that have been in this situation.

A quick, thorough response is needed and that's not always the case (to say the least).

The Situation Room made an error in our case, but the other categorization issue alarmed me too. It was assumed that our kid didn't get covid at school because there was no evidence that she did. We don't test in a way that's designed to check for that. Or to prevent spread.

How many NYC kids who got covid this year were categorized like this because we don't test in a way that tells us enough?

We're not looking at everything we need to to keep NYC schools safe. More on that in a minute.

So while this personal situation was unfolding, national trends are not looking good. Michigan, MA, NJ, and other places have dire numbers. Including in their schools. Local data is also worrying. High case numbers and hospitalizations. Vaccinations are ramping up, but...

kids can't be vaccinated yet & many adults still aren't/won't. And while more and more opens in NYC, vaccinations are the ONLY mitigation. While this is all going on, the mayor jumped on new CDC classroom-distancing rules that would raise classroom capacity. No new safety rules.

Teachers at some schools started to hear yesterday what their new classroom capacity is, & for many, it's right back to where it was before covid: 25-34.

Some school staff has major doubts about this. Numbers still so high, variants spreading...but again, fewer safety rules.

An important read on that:

cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspecti…

Add in the 2 case closure rule on top of that change & things get even dicier.

A bunch of personal thoughts:

--I think it should be changed.
--But when is it safe to do that, considering NYC stats?
--It shouldn't just be DROPPED unsafely, but REPLACED w/ other safety measures.

--After our personal experience (including sibling considerations), I'm more convinced than ever that when this rule is changed, and whole school closures are reduced, it needs to be replaced by something that tests more thoroughly, to prevent spread.

--And there are options to change it! Newark is planning on testing every kid every week for the rest of the year. Even more thorough is testing a whole school if there are multiple cases. There are other options too. The question is whether anyone's been working on this.

--Funding. We have a lot now. But will it actually go toward helping to open schools, or will it go to things like expanding 3K? Does the mayor plan on opening schools up more safely (which takes $) or is he just planning on forcing them open more?

--A major consideration: there are 3 months left this school year. There's funding for improved testing but nothing ever happens quickly, it seems, and as mentioned above, who knows how the mayor will spend it. That money might not go to schools being open safely at all.

Many school staff share the fear that limited time, ego, & pressure with no science behind it will win over safety. We have no idea if the mayor, DOE and UFT have actually been working on this, as they should have been, or not.

And no idea if the mayor will try to force the rule out w/o having a carefully selected replacement, shaped by epidemiologists & public health experts.Would the UFT do anything if he did?

There's a LOT to be worked out. But there also has to be time for spring. Enjoy the break!

Thinking about this quote this morning. And the fact that NYC is both open, and actively looking to reduce school safety measures.

The article that tweet is from:

beckershospitalreview.com/public-health/…

Thanks for the well wishes! Except for some fatigue, my kid’s symptoms are gone, and our quarantine has ended. We’re beyond relieved no one else tested positive but worried about this happening again, with our other kids.

This isn’t the time for NYC schools to decrease safety.